"Who are his assistants? People like him—half-decayed corpses.
"And they solve ritual questions for the living and the dead, they know everything and do everything; they say blessings, unite in wedlock. Who is it stands at the platform? A corpse! He has the face of a corpse, the voice of a corpse; if it happen that a cock crows suddenly, he runs away.
"And the Gevirîm, the almsgivers, the agitators, the providers, the whole lot—what are they? Dead men, long dead and long buried!"
———
"And you, friend? What are you?"
"I? I am half-dead," answers the Jew. He jumps down from the conveyance and disappears among the trees.